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Tip of the Week – Week 9 in the Zone 9 Garden

According to the forecast this will be a cold and wet weekend in the Zone 9 garden. However, if they are wrong, here are some of the things you can work on:

Peaches, plums and redbuds are beginning to show color.

Vegetables

If you have not already prepared your beds by tilling in lots of compost, you need to do it soon. The nutrients in compost are not readily available. Compost needs time for the microbes and insects in the soil to break it down. After tilling I highly recommend adding lots of mulch to keep down the weeds. I use spoiled hay in my garden because it is easy for me to get. Feel free to use leaves, grass clippings or any other natural product that you have access to.

Since there is a good chance for rain this weekend I am going to do some indoor gardening. It is time for me to up pot my tomato transplants. I started my seeds in coir pellets back in January. They are now big enough to be moved into the solo drink cups that I use for pots. I put the coir pellets into the cup and cover the entire stem of the young transplants. Since tomatoes grow roots along their entire stem, planting deep and covering the stem will encourage the little plant to make lots of roots that will help grow a big healthy plant.

Onions are beginning to take off. Keep down the weeds and apply 6 cups of organic fertilizer like Lady Bug All Purpose Fertilizer (8-2-4) per 25 square feet of plantings once a month.

There is still time to plant turnips, rutabagas and beets from seed.

Ornamentals

Poppies and Larkspur are very noticeable right now. Be careful not to pull them when weeding this week.

Lawns

Henbit and clover are sprouting all over my yard. Both are nearly impossible to control with organic methods. Weed eat them regularly to keep them from flowering and setting seed. If you are not organic you can treat the clover with Trimec starting next month. Trimec will kill clover and not damage St. Augustine.

Trees and Shrubs

If you have black, sooty looking limbs on your crepe myrtles there is a very good chance that you have a scale infestation. Now is a great time to “cleanse” yourself of the problem. Mix up a bucket of soapy water and use a soft brush to scrub any remaining “honey dew” from the tree. This cleansing will also remove any scales or scale eggs that are already in place. You can also spray dormant oil at this time. If you live in north or east Texas be aware that there is a new scale infecting crepe myrtles in your part of the state. Oils are not effective against this new pest. To learn more about controlling this pest click here for a great article from the Aggie entomologists at Insects in the City.

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Quotable

"I never had any other desire so strong, and so like to covetousness, as that one which I have always had, that I might be master at last of a small house and a large garden." –Abraham Cowley, “The Garden” (1666)